Academic Recruiting

[Shortbusjeff]

I've seen it discussed on here before about State's lack of recruiting in Academics. Currently my son is being pursued by TSUN and gets mail almost daily, and gets has gotten hand written notes from recruiters. The problem is that State has not sent a single piece of mail. None!

My son has not sent his ACT scores to either school but has visited State twice. He is not at all interested in Ole Miss, and was interested in State for a little while, but has decided on going to a private Christian school.

He may have been persuaded to go to State if they had shown any interest and laid out what type of scholarships he would have received. Ole Miss has done this without ANY information being sent to them. While I do understand he could have sent his info to them Ole Miss was able to find him and recruit him.

The reason we have not sent the information out was 1) it costs
2) to keep the phone calls and mail to a minimum
3) it was only between State and the school he has decided to attend

He is a DeSoto Co. student so I am assuming that State can get as much information as any other University in the state.

He has a 33 on his ACT and is probably in the top 3 of his class and has made two 5's and a 4 on the 3 AP tests he has taken
and is taking 2 more at the end of this year.

My question is why State doesn't do a better job of identifying in state students and try to persuade them to attend State?

In all manners of recruiting we seem to be one step behind!

After thought:

Also, Milsaps and Mississippi College as well as Southern Miss, Fla. St., Ga. Tech, Purdue, Colgate and numerous others have all at least sent information on
the school.

[Goat Holder]

I have no clue why they didn't recruit your son, but I would strongly encourage you do one thing. Although his decision is made, get in contact with SOMEONE IN POWER at MSU and tell them your story. Email Keenum or his secretary if all else fails. This type of thing is something that is directly within his control and he should be concerned.

That said, I don't know your story and the details. You may or may not have done something right or wrong. But all things being equal as you said in your post, I would implore you to contact MSU and let them know, for the betterment of everyone. I know you may be sour over the way they handled your son, I would be too, but still, if you're an MSU fan look out for the best interests of the school going forward.

[blacklistedbully]

I have a daughter who's been recruited heavily for academics. I think the biggest factor in that is her high-school counselor. She does a great job of getting the student's info out. We're in Cali, but she'd been recruited nationally.

[MadDawg]

I can't tell you why your experience has been like that, but ours has been completely opposite.

State has recruited my daughter for a long time now. And we have received countless letters, cards, birthday cards, Christmas cards, t-shirts, etc. After and on campus visit, a professor sent her a chrome cowbell that puts mine to shame. They have probably sent twice as much as mississippi has. Of course she's never expressed any interest in the Bears so that's understandable.

But, and this is just my opinion, you can't complain too much if you don't even send in your ACT scores.

[Technetium]

I was heavily recruited by MSU when I was in high school (graduated 2005). My guidance counselor was a joke. I went to a small school, so I assume that sending my ACT scores to MSU is what put me on their radar. I received daily mail from them and tickets to every home football game during my senior year (through various organizations/departments that were hosting recruiting events), etc. I would encourage you to send your kid's ACT scores to anyone he's interested in, be it MSU or otherwise. There are lots of scholarship opportunities at MSU for someone with a 33 on the ACT.

[TheRef]

Agreed, you get 3 free ACT score sendings when you take the ACT, any subsequent ones after that you have to pay for. But I'd talk to the guidance counselor for that. Mine was pretty good, I never really received stuff from them but I did receive things from the schools I sent my scores to. I had a modest score (28), but with a 35 in Science so I was getting attention somewhat. TSUN never sent anything, got stuff from DSU, MSU, and FSU which were the three I sent my scores to. But this definitely seems like something for you to talk to the guidance counselor about after talking to MSU officials.

[bannedwayne]

When I took the ACT back in the late 90s, I remember getting to choose 3 schools to send the scores to for free (included in the cost of the test).

I'm pretty sure that's where most of my letters came from, that and my high school counselor.

If he went to visit MSU in any official capacity there is no reason for not sending him mail. Roadrunners aren't doing their job if that's the case.

[hailmari]

If 28 is a modest score, I refuse to ever tell what I made (truthfully, at least).

[Dawghouse]

If 28 is a modest score, I refuse to ever tell what I made (truthfully, at least).

I think by modest he means it isn't going to get him a full ride but will definitely get decent scholarship money.

[TheRef]

I think by modest he means it isn't going to get him a full ride but will definitely get decent scholarship money.

That's what I meant. It's not OMG worthy, but it's definitely noteworthy enough. 29 is the cutoff for Imminent Scholar level of scholarship money. So I was one point from that.

[SignalToNoise]

Both my dad and older sister went to State so I had some mail coming through the door. It ramped up a notch when I gave the College of Engineering some contact info and expressed interest in the EE program. That is when I started getting literature that was more meaningful, instead of the generic stuff that was mostly pictures of students sitting on blankets on the drill field laughing and smiling.

[blacklistedbully]

Agreed, you get 3 free ACT score sendings when you take the ACT, any subsequent ones after that you have to pay for. But I'd talk to the guidance counselor for that. Mine was pretty good, I never really received stuff from them but I did receive things from the schools I sent my scores to. I had a modest score (28), but with a 35 in Science so I was getting attention somewhat. TSUN never sent anything, got stuff from DSU, MSU, and FSU which were the three I sent my scores to. But this definitely seems like something for you to talk to the guidance counselor about after talking to MSU officials.

Modest my ass! I realize the scores don't exactly relate to years past, but 28 overall is damn good, and 35 in science is off-the-charts good, considering 36 is the highest attainable score.

My daughter's scores aren't that high, yet she's already been accepted into 2 of the better Chem E programs in the state of Cali, and is waiting to hear from 4 nationally prestigious programs.

[BrunswickDawg]

It is all about sending them scores. They aren't out looking for diamonds in the rough like Mullen is....
The whole reason I ended up at State from GA was that I had one slot to add a score after UGA and my in-state safety school. I added State b/c I knew they had a top baseball program (this was '90). I got my scores back and my first recruiting letter from State on the same day.

[Goat from MSU]

I am having the same problem. My daughter is a soph. in high school score a 29 on ACT .WE gotten stuff from 47 different schools from Brown to Baylor . Not one thing from State ,she about drop them from her list and the kicker is I own a house in Starkville.
I've seen it discussed on here before about State's lack of recruiting in Academics. Currently my son is being pursued by TSUN and gets mail almost daily, and gets has gotten hand written notes from recruiters. The problem is that State has not sent a single piece of mail. None!

My son has not sent his ACT scores to either school but has visited State twice. He is not at all interested in Ole Miss, and was interested in State for a little while, but has decided on going to a private Christian school.

He may have been persuaded to go to State if they had shown any interest and laid out what type of scholarships he would have received. Ole Miss has done this without ANY information being sent to them. While I do understand he could have sent his info to them Ole Miss was able to find him and recruit him.

The reason we have not sent the information out was 1) it costs
2) to keep the phone calls and mail to a minimum
3) it was only between State and the school he has decided to attend

He is a DeSoto Co. student so I am assuming that State can get as much information as any other University in the state.

He has a 33 on his ACT and is probably in the top 3 of his class and has made two 5's and a 4 on the 3 AP tests he has taken
and is taking 2 more at the end of this year.

My question is why State doesn't do a better job of identifying in state students and try to persuade them to attend State?

In all manners of recruiting we seem to be one step behind!

After thought:

Also, Milsaps and Mississippi College as well as Southern Miss, Fla. St., Ga. Tech, Purdue, Colgate and numerous others have all at least sent information on
the school.

[bannedwayne]

I am having the same problem. My daughter is a soph. in high school score a 29 on ACT .WE gotten stuff from 47 different schools from Brown to Baylor . Not one thing from State ,she about drop them from her list and the kicker is I own a house in Starkville.

Go to this site, read the literature, and make a couple of calls.
http://www.admissions.msstate.edu/contactus/roadrunners.php
They'll be recruiting your daughter like she's a 6 Star QB in no time.

[M.Fillmore]

My daughter was valedictorian, huge ACT score, and UMiss was all over her. Nada from MSU.

The kid around the corner was a National Merit Finalist. MSU was a little better with him but not much.
The real problem for him was UMiss said, "National Merit Finalist! Here is $xx,xxx in scholarship money."
MSU told him, "Great, apply for scholly A and you will get money. Then apply for scholly B, then apply for scholly C." The total from each school was about the same but MSU made it a pain in the butt. UMiss made it easy. Fortunately, the kid had the foresight to recognize that MSU has superior engineering studies and so he endured the MSU nonsense and went to MSU. No thanks to our academic recruiters though.

Keenum should clean house with this bunch.

[Shortbusjeff]

Ok, let me try to explain the point I intended to make.

When my son took the ACT I told him to not list any schools until he decided 1) on what he wanted to major in 2) on maybe 3-4 schools. He did decided on the major (Bio-Med Eng)
and then started looking at schools that offered that major. He lets me know and gives me a list of schools and we narrow it down. We visit schools, he selects school, and we send ACT score. We did it this way so he will choose the school he is most comfortable with not because of the amount of scholarships, although I'm certain it would be easier on us it he had chose State.

I don't see the need to send scores to schools that you have no intention of going to and not knowing what you plan on majoring in at that time. You take the ACT as a Junior and most do not have a clue as to what they want to do.


Now, even before we sent in his ACT score to the school he ultimately chose we had phone calls and mail. We toured state also, we had a nice visit and everyone was very helpful. We took down several kids all with very high ACT scores(2 with 30+ and 2 with 29's). The person in charge spent a lot of time with us and was very nice. (All this before we sent in ACT scores) We told him what our son had made and he told us about the scholarships and what to expect and all the dates to adhere to and gave us a packet of information. That is the last we have heard from MSU. I do understand that the only info they had about our son at that time is what we had told them. However, my concern is that approx. 30-40 other schools didn't have that much information and have managed to send him mailings after mailings after mailings. About 5 of them are what one would consider very elite schools.

We are not upset, because we wanted our son to make his decision on where he wanted to go to school.

I'm just curious as to how schools like Ole Miss and others manage to send out information but a school that he was actually interested in does not.

Goat Holder has it right, kind of.
I'm am a State fan as is my wife, son, and daughter. We would love our son to go to State and we always want what is best for State. I'm concerned that this might be a cause for someone that is narrowing down their choice based on scholarships and they may choose to go elsewhere because the info is not getting to them for whatever reason.

Again, I understand that we did not send scores to State and we are not upset over not getting mail. This is just to let someone know that there may be a problem in the recruitment of gifted students in Our State!

[bannedwayne]

To be honest, it's a little embarrassing that MSU didn't have any further contact after the visit and your conversations with the recruiter.

That recruiter dropped the ball.

[Shortbusjeff]

Just to clarify so as to not get anyone in trouble. If I ever mentioned a recruiter, it was by mistake. I'm not sure as to who we talked to or if we have or have not
ever talked to a "recruiter". But when we visited State, it was an organized event and we were not just wandering around campus. We called down and made an appt to
bring 7 students down and many others from across the state were there also.

However, that may be the problem. If he wasn't a recruiter maybe one was not assigned to our group. I'm certain that there is a recruiter in this area as many kids from my
sons school go to State it may be a problem of not enough for DeSoto Co.

[bannedwayne]

THe group was probably a roadrunner, which are basically "recruiters" who are still students at the school. They're responsible for handling a lot of the tours and interactions with potential students and are managed by several faculty.

[DawgInMemphis]

Just to clarify so as to not get anyone in trouble. If I ever mentioned a recruiter, it was by mistake. I'm not sure as to who we talked to or if we have or have not
ever talked to a "recruiter". But when we visited State, it was an organized event and we were not just wandering around campus. We called down and made an appt to
bring 7 students down and many others from across the state were there also.

However, that may be the problem. If he wasn't a recruiter maybe one was not assigned to our group. I'm certain that there is a recruiter in this area as many kids from my
sons school go to State it may be a problem of not enough for DeSoto Co.

I went to high school in DeSoto County. My guidance counselor was a joke. She was absolutely no help to you unless you were interested in UM (at least this was my experience). Neither of my parents went to college, so I really had no idea how any of it worked - this was also before the days of having instant access to a plethora of information via the interwebs. In spite of having a very good ACT score, I ended up going the JUCO route. Luckily I had a professor that was very helpful in laying out what different schools excelled in. I had it narrowed down to MSU and Auburn and fell in love with State on a visit... it didn't hurt that they had a brand spankin' new Chem-E building.

Long story short, I'm still upset with my guidance counselor for not doing her job.

/end rant

[M.Fillmore]

Bama really recruits the National Merit Finalists. Two kids graduated with my daughter who were finalists that went to Bama and they had no connection to the school. Bama apparently recruits like Saban when it comes to Merit Finalists.

[Political Hack]

the #1 academically ranked Jr at Biloxi high who has a 32 on his ACT and is the starting RT for the football team hasn't gotten any letters or scholarship information from State.

[Vandownbytheriver]

We might not recruit academically, but we sure as hell recruit the best telemarketers of the generation. I get calls from various degree programs begging for money at least 3 times a week. I'm assuming they got the number from BDC donations. They hound the hell outta me all the damn time. Some collection company is going to get the best of the best from Our State.

[Goat from MSU]

the #1 academically ranked Jr at Biloxi high who has a 32 on his ACT and is the starting RT for the football team hasn't gotten any letters or scholarship information from State.

Hack :That is my problem my daughter got a 29 as a soph. and we get e mails once a week from Brown,Vandy and Indiana. She still got 2 more years but when she ask me where is State in all this ,I just tell her it is early in the game .

[bgdog]

Ok, let me try to explain the point I intended to make.

When my son took the ACT I told him to not list any schools until he decided 1) on what he wanted to major in 2) on maybe 3-4 schools. He did decided on the major (Bio-Med Eng)
and then started looking at schools that offered that major.

If your son is still interested in the Bio med engineering than I can almost guarantee that he is making a terrible decision in choosing a smaller private school over state.

State has hands down one of the best Bio med engineering programs in the country. I believe we were the first school to even offer that degree. I can not be emphatic enough in stating that if that is the degree your son wants he needs to be at state even if they tell him to go **** himself and make him pay out of state tuition.

[Goat from MSU]

EYI: If your kid takes the ACT and scores over 28. The ACT people gives the scores to any school in the nation that wants it.

[Political Hack]

If your son is still interested in the Bio med engineering than I can almost guarantee that he is making a terrible decision in choosing a smaller private school over state.

State has hands down one of the best Bio med engineering programs in the country. I believe we were the first school to even offer that degree. I can not be emphatic enough in stating that if that is the degree your son wants he needs to be at state even if they tell him to go **** himself and make him pay out of state tuition.

I can second this. the bio-med engineering grads from State laugh at their peers during med school. I've heard it's ridiculous when comparing the difference in a bio-med grad from state and a pre-med from Harvard, Vandy, etc... Flat out been told there's zero comparison.

[grinnindawg]

My son was one of 18 National Merit Finalist at his HS in Alabama.
State, Jaye West specifically, did a good job recruiting them.
Snagged 2, although my son was an easy catch. A bunch of classmates followed.
He received tons of letters, cards and trinkets.

In MS, I'd imagine it's a numbers problem for personal recruiting.
For the boiler plate stuff, there's no excuse for good students receiving no correspondence.
Have you contacted the director of Student recruitment?

http://www.admissions.msstate.edu/contactus/staff-list-student-recruitment.php

Director
nremillard@saffairs.msstate.edu

Jaye
jnj25@msstate.edu

[Shortbusjeff]

Believe me when I tell you that we have encouraged him to go to State, but unless we want to demand it, it ain't happening for no other reason other than
he wants to go to a Christian school.

On a brighter note, he has said he will be attending State for his Masters, and he said the reason was because of there lab and classes he'l be required to take.
He has already researched the classes an says he can't wait to take them.

While some may argue against going to a Christian university, we ain't those that would!

I've explained that there are all types of people in this world and you'll encounter them no matter where you go to school.
So that kinda explains why TSUN was never in the mix.

Thank you all for your input. I hope State doesn't let any get away that really want to go there.

[Technetium]

Well, I'm glad your son has made his own decision regarding where he wants to go. It's important that he's happy with this decision. But, I will further reiterate the previous comments about the risks of going to a small school for BME. Larger schools with established reputations are usually more advantageous. State is a good choice, as is Duke (yes, I'm biased, but we're typically ranked ~#2 in the nation for BME). Make sure he understands there are significant benefits to had with some more traditional BME schools, due to both name and educational/research capability. Don't want him having any career regrets later in life.

[bgdog]

Believe me when I tell you that we have encouraged him to go to State, but unless we want to demand it, it ain't happening for no other reason other than
he wants to go to a Christian school.

On a brighter note, he has said he will be attending State for his Masters, and he said the reason was because of there lab and classes he'l be required to take.
He has already researched the classes an says he can't wait to take them.

While some may argue against going to a Christian university, we ain't those that would!

I've explained that there are all types of people in this world and you'll encounter them no matter where you go to school.
So that kinda explains why TSUN was never in the mix.

Thank you all for your input. I hope State doesn't let any get away that really want to go there.

Bio engineering grads at state are welcome and respected at any institution in the country. I've had friends get into both ivy league med school and ivy league business grad school because of their bio undergrad degree.

I really don't want to sound condescending or even have this conversation but a biology-centric degree from a private christian school, if it is heavily focused christian unlike say a millsaps liberal arts type "christian" school, probably isn't going to garner much respect in that industry, when looking at hiring or applying to grad programs.

Really, really, really, can't reiterate enough the prestige and preparation that comes with a bio engineering degree from state. At least contact the department and try to get your son to have a sit down with them before he makes his decision.

sorry if i offended about the religion comment, was not at all trying to judge or condemn, if that is the field he wants to work in it could be a legitimate concern. Also, I know at my time at state there was a tremendous christian environment.

[M.Fillmore]

It all depends on the school and the department. For example, Asbury University is a very intentional Christian university. NBC hires the vast majority of the college kids it uses for Olympics coverage from this school. Asbury's media department is that good. As wacky as Hollywood is, these graduates have no problems in getting hired.

And no, my kid didn't go there. She visited but it wasn't a good match. Yet, she recognised the excellence of the school.